Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that public transport vehicles are compatible with social distancing measures; and what support his Department will provide for required adaptations to achieve that compatibility.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
On the 12 May, the Government published guidance for passengers and transport operators to help them keep themselves and their staff safe, including how social distancing rules should be interpreted to do this. This guidance will be kept up-to-date as restrictions on travel change.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support he is providing to the logistics industry to help secure ferry places for (a) empty lorries travelling to Great Britain from Northern Ireland and (b) full lorries travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has made available £330 billion of support through loans and guarantees to support UK businesses. Changes have been made to some of the schemes to ensure that more businesses, particularly those that are SMEs like many road haulage companies, can benefit from them.
The Department is aware of the issues faced by the logistics industry in Northern Ireland. That is why on 24 April we announced a package of funding to support the movement of critical goods on up to 31 RoRo freight routes, including between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Up to £17 million of funding will be available to support up to five routes over the next two months, with the Northern Ireland Executive contributing 40 percent. Officials continue to work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive to gather evidence on the scale of the problem and any further support needed.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on (a) connectivity between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and (b) other regional connectivity.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Ministers and officials have been meeting frequently with their counterparts in Northern Ireland and the other Devolved Administrations to discuss matters of mutual concern and to develop plans as appropriate.
In line with guidance issued by government to avoid non-essential travel, domestic public transport networks have amended services to reflect lower demand whilst keeping vital services running for those who are unable to work from home.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the financial rationale is for the cost of MOT testing for class 4 vehicles.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The current MOT fee in Great Britain for class 4 vehicles was set by The Motor Vehicles (Tests) (Amendment) Regulations 2010, and the rationale for the fee level is set out fully in the relevant published impact assessment. The fee has been set to reflect the time taken to carry out an MOT and the costs of a garage in delivering that MOT. MOT garages often charge less than the set fee.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many appeals of an MOT test result the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency received in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The table below shows the number of appeals in Great Britain of an MOT test result received by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in each of the last three years.
Year | Number of appeals of an MOT test result received |
2017 | 595 |
2018 | 605 |
2019 | 609 |
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of charging points for electric vehicles in rural areas.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Along with the private sector, the Government will invest £1 billion in charging infrastructure, ensuring that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station. We are already investing nearly £1.5bn? between April 2015 and March 2021 to support the transition to zero emission motoring and have put in place a range of grant schemes to support the installation of charging infrastructure, available in any urban or rural areas of the UK, including Northern Ireland.
Under the Government’s Go Ultra Low City Scheme, £22.9m has been allocated to support the installation of infrastructure in several UK cities and wider surrounding rural areas. Last year work commenced to determine a vision for a core rapid charger network on England’s strategic road network and we aim to report on this in Spring 2020. Our jointly funded £400 million Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment Fund’s first investment round, worth a total of £70 million, will ensure the delivery of a further 3,000 rapid charging devices by 2024, more than doubling the current number of rapid charging devices.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many flights have declared an emergency in UK air space in each of the last five years.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 376/2014, safety-related events which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The Regulation requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to such occurrences remain confidential. However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An application can be made at www.caa.co.uk/srg1605.